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Flatscreen Looking Funny? Adjust These Settings Right Now

You should be able to buy a new TV, plug it in, hook up a cable box, and be good to go. But no. Sometimes the settings get in the way. And these days, there are so many settings.

If you don't want to go through the sometimes-taxing process of calibrating your TV like a pro, you can still make a few quick adjustments to improve the image quality. We promise: You won't even have to touch the brightness, contrast, and color controls. If your TV’s picture looks worse than you think it should out of the box, try these fixes first.

It's probably in "Demo" or "Store Display Mode" or "Showroom" mode. This torch mode makes a TV look as bright and shiny as possible so that it stands out among the competition in stores. (And hey, maybe it worked on you.)

Many HDTVs ask you to choose “Demo” mode or "Home"/"Standard" mode the first time you plug it in and turn it on. If you accidentally selected Demo mode or got stuck in a scenario where your TV picture is as bright as the sun, there are a few ways to fix it. Unfortunately, every TV is different, so it depends on the make and model of your set.

Somewhere in your TV’s settings menu, there should be a "Display Mode" or "Picture Mode" selection. Make sure it's set to "Demo Mode Off" or "Home" or "Standard." If you can't find that, look for the "factory reset" selection in the menus, which will reset the TV and ask you to choose between the two modes.

If the picture looks stretched out (or doesn't fill the screen)
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You're watching standard-definition programs on an HDTV. If the picture looks stretched, your TV is displaying 4:3 standard-def programming at a 16:9 ratio. If the picture doesn't fill the screen, it's showing 4:3 standard-def programming at its native resolution. HD programming is displayed at a 16:9 ratio, but standard-definition programming has a 4:3 aspect ratio.

There are a few ways an HDTV displays a standard-definition signal, and neither of them are ideal. It can reshape the image to 16:9 to fit the screen, which will fill the whole screen but usually look blotchy and stretched-out. Or it can display it at its native 4:3 resolution, which isn't distorted but doesn't fill the whole screen. Instead, the 4:3 picture will have large black spaces flanking it on either side of the screen.

Luckily, a lot of TVs can adjust the aspect ratio automatically based on the feed it's receiving. Again, all TVs are different, but look for the aspect ratio adjustments in your picture settings. Make sure it’s set to "Auto-Adjust" or "Normal" instead of "Stretch," "Full Screen," or "Zoom."

If everything looks like a soap opera
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Here's the catch with modern LCD/LED HDTVs: They have fast refresh rates (120Hz to 240Hz) so that they can keep up with fast on-screen action. Many of them even have modes that simulate an even higher refresh rate – they're usually called something like "Clear Motion Rate" or "Smooth Motion" or "Motion Flow" – by adding fake frames between the real ones.

While those smoothness-enhancing modes are great for watching sports without on-screen action turning into a messy blur, they can also make films and other programs appear as if they were shot with a camcorder. In those cases, there is such a thing as "too smooth."

To make movies look more like movies, turn off that fancy motion-enhancing mode. Dive into your picture settings or display options on your menu and make sure your set's cleverly named motion-enhancing powers are disabled. (You can always turn them back on again when you're watching NASCAR or the game.)

If you want to tinker with the picture without going down the rabbit hole:
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Calibrating your HDTV can shake your soul and your bank account. It's the recommended way to get the very best picture from your TV, but it can cost quite a bit in terms of money and patience. Besides, you don't have time for that now. (If you do, we recommend Disney's WOW home-calibration Blu-ray disc.)

If the existing look and feel of your picture just isn't doing it for you, try messing around with the scene presets. Ninety-nine percent of the time "Movie" or "Cinema" scene mode usually does the trick for a lot of things. But many sets have scene modes for everything from video games to specific kinds of sports. And because you're not adjusting color, contrast, and brightness independently, you won't get stuck with weird combinations that are hard to find your way out of.